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Editorial 

 

Local Milestones in Scholarly Publishing: Five Years of the BC TEAL Journal 

 

Scott Roy Douglas 

University of British Columbia (Okanagan Campus) 

 

Abstract 

 

This editorial marks the fifth anniversary of the BC TEAL Journal. Remaining committed to free 

and open access scholarly publishing that draws connections to English as an additional language 

(EAL) teaching and learning in British Columbia, the journal has met a number of important 

milestones over the past five years. These milestones include bringing together the large number 

of people involved in producing each issue of the journal, reaching a wide audience of readers, 

being listed in a range of scholarly databases and indexes, assigning digital object identifiers 

(DOIs) to each article and issue, and joining the respected ranks of other important open access 

journals in the field of EAL teaching and learning. The editorial also outlines the key themes in 

the current issue related to K–12 contexts, English for academic purposes (EAP), language 

instruction to newcomers, workplace English, research methods, and critical whiteness studies. 

Finally, the editorial concludes with a recognition of the challenging times EAL teaching and 

learning faces and an expression of gratitude to everyone in the BC TEAL Journal community.  

 

From the Editor 

 

The completion of this issue marks the fifth anniversary of the BC TEAL Journal. Five years ago, 

the journal started with a commitment to the free and open access exchange of knowledge, with a 

focus on publishing peer-reviewed scholarly articles that draw explicit connections to British 

Columbia and English as an additional language (EAL) teaching and learning in this province. 

While welcoming submissions from researchers familiar with the demands and idiosyncrasies of 

academic publishing, the journal also set out with a determination to provide an outlet for 

meaningful work that might not necessarily be published elsewhere through positive support and 

developmental feedback that strengthens and encourages scholarship and eventual publication—

all without submission, processing, or publication fees for authors. This endeavour requires 

countless hours contributed by journal board members, reviewers, editors, and librarians. Just the 

list of BC TEAL Journal peer reviewers alone contains 45 names, many of whom have given 

their time and expertise to more than one article submission. The result has been 30 articles, four 

book reviews, and five editorials written by 48 different authors, all of which have been viewed 

over 33,000 times and downloaded over 19,000 times in the past five years—a wonderful 

contribution to BC TEAL’s mission to support “English language education by raising 

awareness, providing professional development, and sharing expertise” (BC TEAL, 2021). 

 

 The journal has also continued to grow in its impact and recognition as a respected 

scholarly publication. An early milestone the journal achieved was being indexed in the 

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which lists high quality peer reviewed journals and 

provides the BC TEAL Journal with increased visibility and contributes to its reputation for high 

academic standards (DOAJ, 2020). In addition to the DOAJ, the BC TEAL Journal is also listed 

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in Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, which provides libraries with a database of academic journals 

and increases discoverability through libraries around the world (Ulrichsweb, 2021). Rounding 

out some of the major databases and indexes where readers can find the BC TEAL Journal, the 

journal is now listed in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database, which is 

an important database and repository for educational research on a wide range of topics (ERIC, 

n.d.). Finally, 2020 was the year that the BC TEAL Journal started assigning digital object 

identifiers (DOIs) to its issues and articles. DOIs provide a stable link to the journal’s articles on 

the internet, and they are a generally recommended good practice in scholarly publishing. Thus, 

in terms of discoverability, the BC TEAL Journal has joined the ranks of other important open 

access journals in the field of EAL teaching and learning, such as the Asian Journal of English 

Language Studies, the Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, CATESOL Journal, 

MEXTESOL Journal, MinneTESOL Journal, NYS TESOL Journal, ORTESOL Journal, the TESL 

Canada Journal, and TESL-EJ, just to name a few.  

 

 The fifth anniversary of the BC TEAL Journal also brings readers the longest issue to 

date, with a total of 124 pages, not including this editorial. Six key themes arise out of this latest 

issue: K–12 contexts, English for academic purposes (EAP), English language instruction to 

newcomers, workplace English, research methods, and critical whiteness studies. For K–12 

educators, Gillman & Norton (2020) presented their work on an open access multilingual digital 

platform that has stories for elementary school learners in English, French, and a wide variety of 

languages spoken by newcomers to Canada. Also related to teaching in K–12 classrooms, 

Hernberg (2020) provided an analysis on the literature related to additional language learning 

and metacognition to support English language learners in elementary, middle, and high schools. 

Moving away from K–12 classrooms and into college and university settings, articles on 

collaborative written feedback (Maatouk & Payant, 2020) and incidental vocabulary learning 

(Freimuth, 2020) will particularly interest readers working and researching in EAP programs. 

Language teaching and learning for newcomers to Canada is also an important theme in this 

issue, with Mudzingwa (2020) writing about standardization in federally funded EAL programs 

for newcomers to Canada and Balyasnikova (2020) writing about volunteer experiences in an 

EAL learning program in Vancouver. Workplace English is another important topic covered in 

this issue. Hu and Gonzales (2020) found that writing accuracy is valued in the workplace, but 

users of EAL aren’t necessarily prepared by their university programs for these real-life writing 

demands. Next, for novice researchers interested in getting an overview of a variety of research 

methods in Applied Linguistics, Landry (2020) has written a thorough book review of Paltridge 

& Phakiti (2015). Finally, of importance to everyone working in the field of EAL teaching and 

learning, Gerald (2020) examined how English language teaching centres whiteness, how this 

centring negatively impacts teaching and learning, and how the field can move towards 

decentring whiteness and counteracting its harmful effects.  

 

 In closing, this editorial wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the challenges and 

stressors that have faced EAL teaching and learning in British Columbia over the past year. Due 

to the COVID-19 pandemic, classrooms have gone virtual, workloads for some have increased, 

jobs for others have been sadly lost, and the field has been wrought by changes that could not 

have been imagined just over a year ago. Through all of this, members from all sectors of the BC 

TEAL community have pulled together to produce this issue of the journal. What you read in 

these pages is the work of many people taking place over many months during a time when 

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BC TEAL Journal Volume 5 Number 1 (2020): i–iii 

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uncertainty and the unknown loomed large. It would have been easy to put aside the extra task of 

copy editing, peer reviewing, or writing an article. However, that didn’t happen. Instead, the 

journal is able to present its longest issue ever to both BC TEAL’s members and to people 

interested in EAL teaching and learning wherever they may be. Many thanks and much 

appreciation goes out to everyone in the journal’s community of volunteers, writers, and readers.  

 

References 

 

Balyasnikova, N. (2020). An insider view: Understanding volunteers’ experiences within a peer-

to-peer language learning program in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. BC TEAL 

Journal, 5(1), 75–90. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.314  

BC TEAL. (2021). About BC TEAL. Retrieved from https://www.bcteal.org/about/  

Directory of Open Access Journals. (2020). Find open access journals and articles. Retrieved 

from https://doaj.org/  

ERIC. (n.d.). ERIC institute of education sciences. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/  

Freimuth, H. (2020). Are academic English words learned incidentally? A Canadian case study. 

BC TEAL Journal, 5(1), 32–43. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.344  

Gerald, J. (2020). Worth the risk: Towards decentring whiteness in English language teaching. 

BC TEAL Journal, 5(1), 44–54. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.345  

Gilman, M., & Norton, B. (2020). Storybooks Canada, English language learners, and the school 

curriculum. BC TEAL Journal, 5(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.340  

Hernberg, S. (2020). Metacognition and language learning: Creating effective K–12 learners. BC 

TEAL Journal, 5(1), 109–122. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.375  

Hu, J., & Gonzales, L. (2020). English-as-an-additional-language employees’ perspectives on 

writing in the workplace. BC TEAL Journal, 5(1), 91–108. 

https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343  

Landry, M. H. (2020). Review of Paltridge, B. & Phakiti, A. (2015). Research methods in 

applied linguistics: A practical guide, 2nd Ed. London, UK: Bloomsbury. BC TEAL 

Journal, 5(1), 123–124. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.371  

Maatouk, Z., & Payant, C. (2020). Moving beyond individual peer review tasks: A collaborative 

written corrective feedback framework. BC TEAL Journal, 5(1), 19–31. 

https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.341  

Mudzingwa, C. (2020). The quest for standardization: The Canadian federal government and the 

language instruction for newcomers to Canada (LINC) program. BC TEAL Journal, 5(1), 

55–74. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.347  

Paltridge, B., & Phakiti, A. (2015). Research methods in applied linguistics: A practical guide, 

2nd Ed. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic. 

Ulrichsweb. (2021). Ulrichsweb global serials directory. Retrieved from 

http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/  

 

 

 
The BC TEAL Journal is licensed under a 

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 

Copyright rests with the author(s). 

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